Opera 7.5 Released for Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and Windows

Submitted by Jakob Snilsberg 2004-05-12 Opera 63 Comments

With its brand new UI, Opera has launched a new version of its web browser with integrated e-mail-, irc chat- and newsreader clients. In addition there are rss feeds, integrated searches and much more.

About The Author

Eugenia Loli

Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.

Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli

63 Comments

2004-05-12 8:12 pm

Anonymous
Opera 7.50 is also available for FreeBSD.

http://www.opera.com/download/index.dml?platform=freebsd
2004-05-12 8:30 pm

Anonymous
Just installed it, and it’s working great. No real obvious changes over 7.50b1, but then again I had no problems with that. Another great release for the Opera team, and still a tiny 3.5MB download.
2004-05-12 8:34 pm

Anonymous
Neato, but Sparc or x86? I don’t see where it says.
2004-05-12 8:56 pm

Anonymous
http://www.opera.com/download/index.dml?step=3&opsys=Solaris&lng=en…
2004-05-12 8:56 pm

Anonymous
I like it, I didn’t think I would, but it’s actually really nice and smooth looking..

I’m not totally sure about the sidepanel thing tho, but it’s way better than the hotlist in 7.23..

Now, one thing I’d love to have, is the ability to manage the bookmark menu in the menu itself, like you can in any windows menu (with rightclick, etc..)

-Plague
2004-05-12 9:06 pm

Anonymous
“Now, one thing I’d love to have, is the ability to manage the bookmark menu in the menu itself, like you can in any windows menu (with rightclick, etc..)

-Plague

”

firefox does it
2004-05-12 9:08 pm

Anonymous
uuh, yea, I know…

and I was gonna write something about that, but didn’t..

Firefox does it but on the other hand, Firefox doesn’t do alot of the stuff Opera does, and personally, I like Opera more.

Heck, if that’s all I wanted, I could’ve just as well kept IE.. No offence..

-Plague
2004-05-12 9:47 pm

Anonymous
Thnx, I went there before but it still doesn’t answer my question – sparc or intel? 🙂
2004-05-12 10:51 pm

Anonymous
i’ve tried firefox. Nice, but so far, once you get used to Opera Features (Gestures, Search Shorcuts, RESUME Session, etc..) you can’t go back to IE/Other.

I suggest ppl give opera a try, it may look strange @ the beginning, but once you get used to it, you just can’t stop using it.

🙂 Great work.
2004-05-12 11:00 pm

Anonymous
Extensions aren’t exactly the same as having all features already built in and properly integrated into the package.
2004-05-12 11:05 pm

Anonymous
No. they are not the same.its just more modular
2004-05-12 11:13 pm

Anonymous
i’ve tried it a few times but the interface is a bit clunky. i suppose it’s for “power users” but i like things clean and simple. i’ll stick with safari and firefox
2004-05-12 11:16 pm

Anonymous
The UI and speed are much better than previous versions. I’m actually considering buying it =)
2004-05-12 11:18 pm

Anonymous
” I’m actually considering buying it =)”

ya. dont be a leech
2004-05-12 11:25 pm

Anonymous
if you need a specific feature its there in the extensions

I still haven’t seen an extension for fast forward/rewind
2004-05-12 11:33 pm

Anonymous
Firefox becomes extremly slow after you open a few tabs. Some extension are very badly written and slow it even more. You also have to search for them. Also, it does noth have a ZOOM feature. Opera is a much better browser since it has more features, and it is using less resources, and it is much faster.
2004-05-13 12:02 am

Anonymous
im nicely surprised, in fact im trying to move my mail over as we speak to see how the mail system works out…

hmm, it likes my color setup better this time to:) this is very promising in fact…

two thumbs up for opera, nice work. i may even exchange mozilla for this one…
2004-05-13 12:04 am

Anonymous
“I still haven’t seen an extension for fast forward/rewind”

http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/linktoolbar

You dont have to search for it. its grouped clearly

http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/
2004-05-13 12:10 am

Anonymous
having a messy interface and asking users to change it is not the right way. defaults matter. firefox has a clean and simple interface

True, but on FreeBSD and DragonFly, FireFox is unbearably slow, in every regard. To top that off, just like Konqueror (STILL!) FireFox’s pulldown URL history doesn’t work under these OSs. What the hell is so hard about making that feature work?

Honestly?
2004-05-13 12:12 am

Anonymous
“firefox is lot more than IE. you are biased. if you need a specific feature its there in the extensions”

obviously you didn’t read my comment properly..

I _know_ about firefox, all I said was that if the menu edit thing was _all_ I wanted, then I could just aswell have stuck with IE..

The thing is, This whole article was about Opera, and all I did was making a wish for a feature.. That has nothing to do with the fact that there are other browsers out there that already has that feature. Ofcourse there are, but I want that feature in Opera, simple as that.

Also, some of the reasons I like Opera more than Firefox are that in Opera I can build my own contextmenus for example, hell I can customize just about anything in it, stuff that I _can’t_ customize in Firefox, even with extensions (I spent yesterday playing with Firefox and it’s extensions). And I like how Opera has the URL bar inside each tab, something Firefox doesn’t and I like that Opera is way more compatible with IE specific sites, than Firefox is..

Now, this may not mean much to you, but it does to me.

What I can’t understand is why you get offended by me liking Opera more than Firefox, it doesn’t make sense..
2004-05-13 12:22 am

Anonymous

2004-05-13 12:29 am

Anonymous
“Great, except it doesn’t integrate with the gestures extension. What’s the point?”

you didnt specify that requirement. yes. there is a extensions for mouse gestures to work with link it but no point in spoon feeding you.

‘To top that off, just like Konqueror (STILL!) FireFox’s pulldown URL history doesn’t work under these OSs. What the hell is so hard about making that feature work? ”

it works fine here in linux.

2004-05-13 12:31 am

Anonymous
“And I like how Opera has the URL bar inside each tab, something Firefox doesn’t and I like that Opera is way more compatible with IE specific sites, than Firefox is.. ”

other than placement of the tab and url bar there is no difference.

actually firefox works better with IE sites. opera developer recently said that

2004-05-13 12:32 am

Anonymous
:What I can’t understand is why you get offended by me liking Opera more than Firefox, it doesn’t make sense..:

why do you assume that. you said no offense and then assumed it.

2004-05-13 12:35 am

Anonymous
Now, one thing I’d love to have, is the ability to manage the bookmark menu in the menu itself, like you can in any windows menu (with rightclick, etc..)

I realize it’s not in the menu, per se, but you can do that in the bookmarks panel. It’s just that the menu is more convenient to access, isn’t it?

2004-05-13 12:39 am

Anonymous
Firefox has extensions that do much of what Opera has built-in, such as tab management, gestures, etc. The problems are that

1) most extensions don’t work really well. A gesture would fail to register when dragging over a window, sessions would sometimes get saved and sometimes won’t, turning a window into a tab sometimes causes the window’s content to be lost, etc. It just feels like very raw beta software written by people not intimately familiar with Firefox source. It would be nice if there were some *official* extensions made by the dev team that are rock-solid reliable.

2) if it’s not in the default install, most users won’t know about it. I mean, there are tab extensions and popup blockers and search bars and prettyfying guis for explorer that you can download. But the availability of those extensions does not change the fact that for the majority of its users, explorer majorly sucks.

So what I am saying, Firefox should by default come with the most frequently-used extensions, as long as they are well-integrated and debugged. Kind of like Opera does…

2004-05-13 12:44 am

Anonymous
”

So what I am saying, Firefox should by default come with the most frequently-used extensions, as long as they are well-integrated and debugged. Kind of like Opera does…”

that would make the interface as cluttered as opera. i dont want a opera clone

2004-05-13 12:55 am

Anonymous
‘having a messy interface and asking users to change it is not the right way. defaults matter. firefox has a clean and simple interface’

If Opera made the interface less ‘messy’ then people would be complaining about them hiding too many features from the user. Either way some people would have to spend a minute or two getting the interface how they want, Opera really can’t win when it comes to the defaults.

Anyway, is spending a minute turning off a few Opera features really as much hassle as dealing with extensions in Firefox?

I spent a couple of hours playing with Firefox extensions and I still couldn’t get it working half as well as Opera. A lot of the extensions are very buggy and there seem to be conflicts between many of them. Changing the settings in Opera seems like much less work than getting Firefox to do what I want.

2004-05-13 1:12 am

Anonymous
Two badly needed features missing from Opera:

1. Per-site pop-up blocking white list – having to do the ‘F12 shuffle’ gets annoying.

2. Something similar to Firefox’s adblock … kill ads with the right mouse button and kill flash with the adblock overlay – not having this feature just ruins the whole experience, IMHO.

2004-05-13 1:14 am

Anonymous
if you look at the filename, the answer to your question will be revealed:

opera-7.50-20040511.2-shared-qt-sol8-sparc-local-en.tar.gz

2004-05-13 1:27 am

Anonymous
you didnt specify that requirement. yes. there is a extensions for mouse gestures to work with link it but no point in spoon feeding you.

And in the time you took to type that you could’ve told me the name of the extension, which leads me to believe that it doesn’t actually exist.

I have the All-in-One Gestures extension installed. What other one should I be using?

Please quit spreading FUD about Opera by telling people it won’t render their pages as well as Firefox. You can’t expect people to swallow their tripe if you’re too much of an elitist to even answer their questions.

As it stands, Opera out-of-the-box provides a *much* better experience for power users.

You dont have to search for it. its grouped clearly

2004-05-13 1:30 am

Anonymous
“other than placement of the tab and url bar there is no difference.

actually firefox works better with IE sites. opera developer recently said that”

Ok, so tell me how to rebuild contextmenus in Firefox, in Opera there are pretty much no limitations in that area.

And as for IE sites. I have a perfect example of a site with a java script designed for IE, that semi-works in Opera but doesn’t work at all in Firefox (I won’t put the URL in here, because I happen to respect the owner of it ), but trust me, Opera handles it alot better than Firefox. So I don’t really care what the Opera dev’s allegedly said about that fact.

“why do you assume that. you said no offense and then assumed it.”

Well, you called me biased, without anything to back it up. If I somehow got that completely wrong, then sorry about that. Just don’t call me biased without somehting to back it up, you have no idea about my browser experiences, so you have no idea if I’m biased or not..

“I realize it’s not in the menu, per se, but you can do that in the bookmarks panel. It’s just that the menu is more convenient to access, isn’t it? ”

Yup..

I don’t really like the panel at all, it’s one of the things I don’t like about Opera.

If the Email panel thingy was moved into the Email tab, then I would never ever use the panel at all..

Oh well, can’t have everything can we?

Oh yeah, that’s another reason I like opera more, the email client.. I don’t like the client itself, but I like that it’s just another tab in the browser, yummie..

I’m pretty sure Thunderbird is way better, but that doesn’t really matter, as I find it better to have the email client as another tab in the browser than having a separate app for emails..

2004-05-13 1:31 am

Anonymous
you shouldnt play. you use them. i am fine with the defaults of firefox. nobody is with opera’s

You’re intentionally arguing with Opera users by trolling this thread. Opera typically attracts power users because of its diverse feature set. Consequently, typical Opera users will not be happy with the default set of features provided by Firefox, as Firefox per default is extremely barren of features, especially compared to the basic functionality provided by Opera. (yet Firefox is a 6.2MB download, and Opera is 3.5MB. Why is it that Firefox users like to accuse Opera of bloat?)

Consequently, Opera users don’t have a problem spending a minute to configure the interface the way they like it as opposed to sending hours trying out Firefox extensions to duplicate the basic functionality of Opera.

2004-05-13 1:40 am

Anonymous
seems like we’re on the same page here..

Why did this thread have to be a Opera vs Firefox thread in the first place?

And I agree what you said bascule:

” If you’re trolling an Opera related thread with anti-Opera pro-Firefox comments, the least you could do is give Opera users interested in trying Firefox (such as myself) the information they request to get the functionality of Opera in Firefox. At the present time that either isn’t possible, or you’re unwilling to do it.”

if you Firefox fans really want to turn us away from Opera, then SHOW US how to make Firefox work, behave and look like our customized Opera, instead of just telling us that Firefox can do this and that..

As Bascule, I’m really interested in Firefox aswell, but so far, I haven’t been able to get it the way I want..

2004-05-13 1:42 am

Anonymous
“Please quit spreading FUD about Opera by telling people it won’t render their pages as well as Firefox. You can’t expect people to swallow their tripe if you’re too much of an elitist to even answer their questions.”

i didnt question you did i. i didnt tell anyone opera cannot render pages. quote me if i did.

”

As it stands, Opera out-of-the-box provides a *much* better experience for power users.

”

your opinion. firefox caters to the mass just not power users.

“And as for IE sites. I have a perfect example of a site with a java script designed for IE, that semi-works in Opera but doesn’t work at all in”

you should be designing for standards if you claim to know more than the developer

“I’m pretty sure Thunderbird is way better, but that doesn’t really matter,”

you got the reason for me calling you biased

”

actually firefox works better with IE sites. opera developer recently said that”

Ok, so tell me how to rebuild contextmenus in Firefox, in Opera there are pretty much no limitations in that area. ”

you are jumping from one thing to complete different thing. i dont want to rebuilt context menus

“And in the time you took to type that you could’ve told me the name of the extension, which leads me to believe that it doesn’t actually exist.

”

well keep using opera.dont bother about replying

2004-05-13 1:45 am

Anonymous
>>>>”Firefox is this!”

>>>No! Firefox is that!

>>No! No! It’s this! And I am offended!

>No! No! No! It’s that! And you’re not offended, I am offended!!

I hope the editors nuke most of the wasted ascii posted about this article.

2004-05-13 1:54 am

Anonymous
WOW, talk about taking words out of context..

“you should be designing for standards if you claim to know more than the developer”

It’s not _my_ fault there are so many javascripts etc made for IE only, it’s just the way things are atm..

And it’s not _my_ fault Opera happens to handle atleast _one_ of those scripts better than Firefox..

It’s just the way things are atm..

“you got the reason for me calling you biased”

I said it doesn’t really matter BECAUSE “I find it better to have the email client as another tab in the browser than having a separate app for emails..” which means I can STAND the client not beeing perfect or the best of the bunch, because I value it’s placement as a simble tab MORE.

That _STILL_ doesn’t make me biased.

“you are jumping from one thing to complete different thing. i dont want to rebuilt context menus”

Actually, my quote from you contained TWO senteces, and I answered them both, starting with the context menus, that you sais was no different from Firefox..

Don’t believe me?

I’ll prove it:

me: “Also, some of the reasons I like Opera more than Firefox are that in Opera I can build my own contextmenus for example”

you: “other than placement of the tab and url bar there is no difference.”

me: “Ok, so tell me how to rebuild contextmenus in Firefox, in Opera there are pretty much no limitations in that area.”

you: “i dont want to rebuilt context menus”

Now, even if you don’t wanna rebuild the context menus, I DO! and you said there was no difference between Opera and Firefox in that area, so I expect you to show me how to rebuild those menus in Firefox..

“well keep using opera.dont bother about replying”

This is an Opera thread, the most logical would be for it’s users to wanna use Opera, not Firefox, so what’s the problem here?

Why did you even try to promote Firefox in here? What was the point in the whole Opera vs Firefox, especially without any proof whatsoever to back your claims..?

2004-05-13 2:00 am

Anonymous
Hey guys, this is not a Firefox post. Just the announcement that a new Opera version has been released. I’ve been using it for 2 or 3 hours and it’s working great. Yes, I had to tweak a few things (not that they are needed). The thing is, after more than 2 years of Opera, i’m used to some things, i like some things they way i find ’em more productive FOR ME. I’ve been using firefox (to give it a try because i’m switching to OSX soon and the opera support was bad, but now that there’s a new Opera version for OS X i don’t consider Firefox), and my experience wasn’t good. Firefox looked nice, clean, VERY simple, and fast. But some extensions are buggy, and simply i am SOOO used to “my” opera Skin, “my” opera toolbar positions (in fact y remove mostly all of ’em, is that too difficult?) that i found Firefox was missing some features.

And finally, the fact that Firefox lacks the opera Resume Session, is “unacceptable”. IMO it’s one of the best features opera has (not counting the fantastic shortcuts if you spend 10 minutes learning them).

Simply, SHIFT-CTRL-D -> create a window on background, paste the clipboard url and “go”. Things like that are the ones that make a software productive. Some ppl may call ’em “power features for power users”. I think they are POWERFULL features that may take time to find out. (i’m not THE opera guru after all). If you spend some time investingating a piece of software, if you find it productive for your needs, if you spend time reading “some” of the documentation, you may be surprised how good a piece of software could be.

The thing is, do not attack software just because you don’t like it. I didn’t find Firefox productive. It was slower on my box than Opera, used the same amout of ram (with less open windows) and didn’t have the “defacto” tab behaviour i like in opera (and I move that tab list to the right).

I’m sure both pieces of softare are great.

“Both are yours, Use them wise, use them in peace. Except I.E., attempt no landing there”

Martin.

pd: really, for those who found Opera non-productive, i suggest you spend more time with it. It’s worthwile. Believe an old opera user. My wisdom is high, my interest is 0, i do not work for opera, won’t earn a dime if you use it or not. I’ve payed mine.

pd2: no, opera is NOT perfect. I wish i could redefine shorcuts… some are not “nice” for ME. I wish i wish i wish.. the list goes on. But i rarely use IE… with this new version, i have some less reasons. The support has improved even further.

pd3: will you please shut me up?

2004-05-13 2:03 am

Anonymous
“you said there was no difference between Opera and Firefox in that area, so I expect you to show me how to rebuild those menus in Firefox.. ”

i specifically quoted the tab placement. you said the url was “inside” each of the tab. i just pointed out it was just a placement different. nothing inside of anything else. i didnt mention about rebuilding context menus. i dont care about that. if opera users do then no problem with that. keep using opera.

2004-05-13 2:14 am

Anonymous
“And finally, the fact that Firefox lacks the opera Resume Session, is “unacceptable”. IMO it’s one of the best features opera has (not counting the fantastic shortcuts if you spend 10 minutes learning them).”

its has both of these features.

2004-05-13 2:29 am

Anonymous
ok, now you’re getting unpleasant.. Don’t call me an idiot, what the hell have I done to deserve that?

trying to “sell” a product, does not neccesarily mean the product isn’t free.. You can “sell” a concept, without anyone even having to pay you a dime..

It’s a figure of speech..

“just because i mention a particular feature doesnt mean i have to teach you how to do it exactly. thats a stupid thing to say i should do that”

No it’s not stupid.. You come here and make alot of claims about what Firefox can do, but you don’t even give a simple link to a place where I can read about it or download the plugin or whatever.. No proof whatsoever is given, just your word that it can be done.

That’s pretty much worthless.

“” there is no option to simply close the current tab”

thats a very very stupid thing to say,”

is it?

How come?

I use that feature ALOT in Opera, now how can that be a stupid thing?

Firefox cannot do it, unless it’s possible to change the context menus in it, which you still haven’t given an answer to, or any proof whatsoever..

2004-05-13 2:34 am

Anonymous
“http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Firefox_:_Tips_:_Custom…

2004-05-13 2:40 am

Anonymous
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/list.php/Firefox/mousegest“

2004-05-13 2:41 am

Anonymous
“i already gave several links. you are just lying”

You didn’t give ME several links, you gave Bascule links.

“because its possible. if you use firefox open it up and check. dont expect everyone to spoon feed you”

where in the context menu is an option to close the current tab? That’s right, nowhere..

And NO, I did NOT say there was no option to close the current tab at all, I JUST said there was no option to do it in the context menu, which there isn’t. Which I want!

“http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Firefox_:_Tips_:_Custom…

THANK YOU, now was that so hard?

There was no need for all the flames from you, you could’ve just given me this link from the beginning, since that’s what I’ve been asking for all along..

2004-05-13 2:44 am

Anonymous
“And NO, I did NOT say there was no option to close the current tab at all, I JUST said there was no option to do it in the context menu, which there isn’t. Which I want! ”

yes. i use it. right click on the tab and close it

2004-05-13 2:45 am

Anonymous
“http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.phtml?title=Firefox_:_Tips_:_Custom…

THANK YOU, now was that so hard?

There was no need for all the flames from you, you could’ve just given me this link from the beginning, since that’s what I’ve been asking for all along..”

its was first link on a google search for “firefox context menu”

its not hard at all. thats why YOU should be doing it

2004-05-13 2:53 am

Anonymous
Didn’t know. How? WHere?

Thanks.

2004-05-13 2:59 am

Anonymous
“yes. i use it. right click on the tab and close it”

Ofcourse I meant the context menu for the webpage, not the tab button itself.. I thought that was kind of obvious..

“its was first link on a google search for “firefox context menu”

its not hard at all. thats why YOU should be doing it”

No I shouldn’t, since YOU are the one who came in here making claims about Firefox, in an Opera thread..

Anyways, Now that you’ve _finally_ proved that the context menu _can_ be changed in Firefox, there’s one less reason for me to use Opera, BUT this was not the only reason. Plus, why should I switch? So far, Firefox isn’t BETTER than Opera , it’s maybe as good, but it’s not BETTER, and I’m already used to Opera, so why switch?

However, unlike you (it seems), I like BOTH browsers and I’m always interested in the development of BOTH browsers. IF Firefox one day in my opinion beats Opera hands down, then I’ll switch instantly, but right now, I feel like Opera is better, so there’s no reason for me to switch.

That doesn’t change the fact that I like Firefox, I do, but it just doesn’t fulfill all my needs yet. Neither does Opera, but it’s alot closer atm..

Now, try to not flame everyone that doesn’t share your opinions about things and try to respect the choice we’ve made by using Opera.

I certainly don’t hold anything against you for using Firefox.

Remember, this is an Opera thread, there was no reason to bring up Firefox at all really, unless someone asked about it, but noone did. You were the first to make a comment about it.

Now, I’m going to bed, try not flame everyone you see in the meantime.. Mkey?

2004-05-13 4:19 am

Anonymous
Just got it installed on my workstation at work and it rocks. Great browser gets better and guess what, under view you can deal with all the tool bars and get rid of most of them leaving a very minimalistic interface. This is inspiring me to purchase Opera for my home system and regardless of how Pheonix feels on my Arch Linux box, I can’t escape some of the better functions Opera provides like decent download management, keyboard and mouse guestures (use a combo of both) and Opera being very fast to use. I’m using the dimmed skin which adds to the simplicity of the UI. Great stuff.

2004-05-13 5:38 am

Anonymous
“Didn’t know. How? WHere?

Thanks.”

http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info.php/sessionsaver

it has shortcuts too obviously

2004-05-13 7:28 am

Anonymous
As well as adding new features such as RSS feeds and IRC chat, one area that Opera has focused on has been to make things less geeky. Subtle things can put people off switching from the “comfortable and familiar” world that is internet explorer. Examples:

– changing the name of M2 to Mail

– changing the name of Hotlist to Panels

– preventing drag & drop of images within a window to stop mouse “accidents”

– locking toolbars to prevent icons being moved around by accident

– changing the default skin from something “futuristic” to something closer to the IE look

– reducing the number of toolbars switched on by default

The focus for browser developers has to be getting users to switch from IE. If Firefox and Opera are so good why does IE have a 90+% share of the browser market?

It’s cool that a whole new bunch of computer users that probably never even heard of irc might give it a try now

2004-05-13 8:43 am

Anonymous
thanks.

2004-05-13 9:47 am

Anonymous
but I wish i could customise the search toolbars more.. such as set ebay.com to ebay.com.au.

Firefox can do this, but I like opera more than firefox because I can set my tab bar to the bottom, and reorder tabs, and set it to only ever use a single window.. without using Tabbed Browser Extensions, which are slow and crappy.

2004-05-13 9:58 am

Anonymous
If Firefox and Opera are so good why does IE have a 90+% share of the browser market?

This is simple: It’s the default. It works well enough for most people I know to still continue using it, usually with Google or MSN’s (depending on how adventurous they are) toolbar to prevent popups.

Tabs, gestures, ad blockers, advanced CSS and PNG support are meaningless to most people who just want to view sites. IE is not bad enough to drive people to alternative browsers, no matter how much better they might be.

2004-05-13 10:20 am

Anonymous
You can do that. There isn’t an interface way of doing it but you can go into the ini file to add/edit if you want (it’s fairly simple) or go and get this:

http://starzaki.eu.org/~hclan/operapl/en/

But I agree a – within Opera – way of doing it would be great.

2004-05-13 12:02 pm

Anonymous
“you didnt specify that requirement. yes. there is a extensions for mouse gestures to work with link it but no point in spoon feeding you.”

No, the whole point in desktop software is SPOON FEEDING.

If I have to bloody go and search for extensions and “integrated extensions” and whatever, what’s the point?

I wan’t it NOW, and i don’t want to do ANYTHING to enable it.

Opera gives this to me, firefox does not.

2004-05-13 2:50 pm

Anonymous
>> No, the whole point in desktop software is SPOON FEEDING.

>>I wan’t it NOW, and i don’t want to do ANYTHING to enable >>it.

~Sigh~

I am not sure whether this is funny, sad or just plain pathetic.

No, not everyone needs to be an expert at everything but sometimes ignorance is not bliss. Rather it is just plain lazy. This mentality is why there are so many bug-ridden, virus-infected, bloated computers in the world. It is also why sub-par companies like MS thrive.

Perhaps this is just consumerism at its best…

2004-05-13 3:13 pm

Anonymous
‘Rather it is just plain lazy.’

Is it as lazy as not being willing to spend a minute changing Opera’s settings from the defaults?

That takes a lot less time and effort than hunting down multiple extensions to add all the features that Opera users enjoy. I’d be much more happy with Firefox if I could just find an extension to provide saved window sessions that work consistently. A lot of the extensions I’ve tried seem bug ridden and unreliable, unlike Opera’s built in features.

2004-05-13 5:37 pm

Anonymous
…changing browsers every few months. Ever since Opera 7.11 came out I’ve been using Firefox; it had better site compatability, Opera 6 was too ‘aged’ for my tastes, Opera 7.11 was pretty funky and not an altogether pleasant experience.

But, with the release of the 7.5x betas, release canditates, and finals, I’ve finally switched back to use it as my primary browser. I still have Firefox for compatability reasons, but its inconsistency and “dumbed-down” feel really don’t jive with me anymore, but I’ll use it over IE if I have to do some online banking or “critical” stuff – Opera still has flaky Javascript support.

I have to say, this is a quality release; slick, shiney, and fast to boot! They also fixed that incredibly annoying “dragged image” quirk that bothered me so much in 7.11.

It feels good to be back in the Opera saddle!

2004-05-14 12:32 am

Anonymous
personaly i find the browser part nicely done but that mail client irks me. ok it may be a new way to sort stuff but when i delete a mail i want it deleted damn it. i deleted a whole lot of just that i somehow imported (forgot to deselect the junk mail folder most likely) and then when i checked to see any mail with a image attachment i got all the mail that was in the trashcan of crying out loud! they are in there for a reason. you dont even see window search the trashcan for when you do a file search! and i could not drag any mails that i had imported from my sendt mail folder (again forgot to deselect but could be nice to have just to look back on) into the opera sendt mail folder for some reason (and dont shoot me for calling them folders when they are filters, they still use the damn folder icon so i call them folders)…

2004-05-14 5:29 am

Anonymous
You sure? I dont see that. I see envelope based icons…

2004-05-15 11:23 pm

Anonymous
My PC is now obsolete. Opera has single-handedly kept my PC current for internet use, and has now pulled the rug out of under me. My 240MMX beast can’t even drag the scroll bars on the new version, I have to click under them instead. It wasn’t that long ago you boasted of returning to your lean, efficient beginnings, now suddenly just dragging a scroll bar is processor-intensive?! I will use 6.x as long as possible, but already places like half.com are getting serious incompatibilities. I never liked 7.anything and now it seems you have reached the end of your usefulness before this PC did.

2004-05-21 2:38 pm

Anonymous
Opera is best. 2 times smaller download and you don’t have to extend firefox/mozilla just to get Opera features. Go straight for best one, having all out-of-the-box. Plus Opera has support for IE-specific JScript that Gecko doesn’t. That’s key for compatibility with many lame DHTML menus on the web.

Free Opera 7.50 has much smaller and less intrusive ad.